Learning To Fly
by AwesomeAstrid
Summary: This is a Gerome-Cynthia one-shot about a scene mentioned in their S support in Fire Emblem: Awakening about when Cynthia taught Gerome to fly. This is my first Fire Emblem fanfic, so please give it a read! Please review but please be nice!


**A/N This is my first Fire Emblem fanfic! Please be nice (meaning no mean reviews, please). In my game of Awakening, I paired Cynthia and Gerome together, and I love their support conversations. So much that I wrote this based on a line from their S support:**

 **Gerome:** **Do you remember teaching me to fly when we were young?**

 **Cynthia:** **Yeah, sure! You were so scared of heights you couldn't ride a wyvern! So I took you on my pegasus, and we flew and flew until you weren't afraid any more. Hee hee! That was so much fun! I haven't thought about that in ages...**

 **So this story is about when that happened. It is in Gerome's POV. Please keep in mind that I don't not have vertigo, nor do I know anyone who does, so please don't expect my description of Gerome's vertigo to be correct because I don't actually know what having vertigo is like. Anyway, hope you like the story! Please review!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or any of the characters in this story.**

My friend Cynthia ran over to me. She and I had planned to play together again today. We'd had so much fun yesterday, when we played Justice Allegiance. However today, I noticed that she had a Pegasus behind her.

"Hiya Gerome!" Cynthia exclaimed.

"Hey Cynthia," I said. "Yesterday was fun, huh? What do you want to play today?"

"Well…" She said. "I kinda wanna fly my pegasus today."

"Oh… but I thought you said we'd play together today?" I said, trying to hide my disappointment.

"Yeah, silly!" She giggled. "I wanna fly **with** you! Flying is no fun alone."

"Cynthia, I've told you a million times, I don't want to fly." I said. I hated lying to her. I do want to fly. Especially with her. It does look fun, it's just… I can't.

"But why not, but why not, but why not, but why not, but why not?!" She asked annoyingly.

"I told you, I just don't want to." I said.

"And **I** told **you** , I want to know why!" She yelled. I flinched. Cynthia usually only yelled when she was happy. She never got mad at anyone. "Why, Gerome? Why can't you just tell me why you don't want to? I know there's a reason, Gerome. I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything. But when you refuse to talk to me about this, I just – I just sorta maybe think that you don't trust me…" There are tears in her eyes. I never meant to hurt her. I was doing her a favour by keeping this from her, by not burdening her with my stupid problem.

"Cynthia, I do trust you, it's just… ah…" I said. "Oh, I don't know what to tell you…"

"How 'bout the truth?" She yelled. "What else could you tell me? Because every time I mention flying, you say the same kind of thing. Oh, 'Minerva's not feeling well today,' or 'sorry, I flew without you earlier and I don't want to fly again'. It hurts my feelings, Gerome! I know you didn't fly earlier that day, I saw you talking to Lucina! And I know Minerva was fine, because I saw your mother riding her later that day! And when you lie to me, **just** to get out of flying, it's like, maybe it's not the flying part. Maybe you just don't want to fly with **me**!" At this, Cynthia ran to her Pegasus, tears streaming down her face.

"Wait, Cynthia, that's not it!" I called. She hastily climbed onto her Pegasus and began to fly away, knowing that it was a sure way to get rid of me. I watched her fly away. I couldn't do this to her. _That's it_ , I thought. _I_ ** _have_** _to learn to fly. That way, she won't hate me._

I ran to where Mother kept Minerva and got her ready for flying. I don't care if I have Vertigo. I have to do this for Cynthia. I led Minerva to the woods and climbed onto her. I could see Cynthia in the distance. This is her favourite place to fly. Maybe she'll see me flying, and then we can fly together. Just in case I wasn't close enough, I got off of Minerva and ran closer to where she was flying. Then I was ready. I climbed onto Minerva's back and held the reins.

"Go Minerva," I said, flicking the reins. Minerva spread her wings and began to fly. She rose up, up, and suddenly I felt dizzy. I looked down. The ground looked so far away, and it was getting further and further away.

Everything went fuzzy. I looked down at my hands, holding the reins. They were now a blur. I felt dizzy. I felt like I was bouncing. I leaned over the side of Minerva. Something seemed to be flying below me. I couldn't tell what. Suddenly, it got bumpier. The reins slipped out of my hands. I began to slip off of Minerva. I felt myself fall. I closed my eyes. Not that it made things better or worse – I could hardly see anything anymore. But then I heard a voice. It was Cynthia's, I just knew it.

"Gerome!" She yelled. I opened my eyes. She grabbed my hand. She let go of her own reins, which scared me. _What if she fell, too?_ But she was fine. She helps me onto her Pegasus and things became steady. My vision cleared somewhat and I was able to make out her face. But I was still scared.

"Wow, Gerome. I knew you weren't good at flying, but I didn't think you were that bad to fall off your Wyvern." She giggled.

"Cynthia, p-please, I'll explain later, just please land this thing." I stuttered, scared. I thought she was still mad at me, but surprisingly, she nodded. She picked up the reins and expertly steered the Pegasus down to the ground. I slid off the Pegasus and sat down on the ground. The world was still spinning. I tried to calm myself down.

"Gerome, are you… okay?" She asked. She sat down beside me. "…You don't look too good. Is something wrong? You know, you can tell me anything. And I'm sorry I got mad at you before, too. It was silly. You can tell me anything, just like you can hide anything from me, if you really don't want me to know… I guess…" She looked sad though. I knew she was still upset. She didn't like that I was hiding something from her.

"No, Cynthia… I should tell you." I said. "The reason I never wanted to fly with you is because… I have Vertigo."

"What's that mean?" She asked.

"Well it's um… sort of being scared of heights." I tried to explain it. "That's why I said I didn't want to fly with you. I… lied. I did want to fly with you, but I just couldn't, or you'd know. You always tell me how awesome I am, and I thought you'd think less of me if you knew my secret weakness."

"But Gerome, don't you get it?" She asked. "I think **more** of you now!"

"What? Why?" I asked.

"It's great to be perfect and all, but it takes a real hero to admit your weakness like you just did." She told me.

"Wow. Thanks Cynthia." I said. "And I think it takes a real hero to accept someone's weaknesses like you just did."

"Really?" She asked.

"Yup. You're my hero." I said. She suddenly stood up.

"Right. Let's go. Get up." She said.

"Why? What are we doing?" I asked.

"I'm going to teach you to fly." She said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet.

"What, no! I just told you I can't!" I yelled.

"You can. You just gotta stop being scared. I don't care how much you freak out. You'll get over it. This will help you in the long run." She grabbed my hand and we walked over to the Pegasus. I said nothing, taking in her words. _Maybe she's right. Maybe she can help me. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm going to fall again._ She noticed me lost in thought. "Hey! Gerome! Yoo-hoo! Snap out of it! You'll be fine!" She giggled her little laugh that always makes me feel better. "Trust me; I'm not going to let you fall." She climbed onto the Pegasus. "Come on!" She pulled me onto the Pegasus and picked up the reins. "You ready?" She asked.

I shrugged. "As I'll ever be," I said.

She flicked the reins and off we were. After less than a minute, I began to freak out.

"Whoa… okay Cynthia. You've had your fun. Now… let's get our feet back on the ground, shall we?" I suggested, trying to hide the fact that I was freaking out.

"Gerome, silly, we just got up here." She giggled.

"Cynthia, I uh… I'm just going to say it. I'm freaking out up here!"

"Don't care." She said. _Wow, she's good at this tough love thing. But that's not what I wanted!_

"Can we **please** go down now?" I tried again.

"Nope,"

"Cynthia, please. I can't do this. I'm scared."

"Gerome, don't be scared." She said sweetly, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"B-but the ground is so f-far away." I stuttered.

"Then don't look down," She said. "Don't worry about that ground. That is not the awesome part of flying. Don't look down, silly. Look up at the sky. See how cool it looks from up here?" I slowly moved my head and looked up at the sky. The sky and the clouds did look different, I suppose. "Look, look at the cool clouds. Doesn't that one look like a flower?" I didn't think it did, but I agreed with her anyway.

"Hey, yeah, it does," I said. Then I noticed something. "Hey, look! That one looks like a Pegasus!"

"Wow, yeah!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Oh, oh! That one looks like the Falchion. Oh, I wish Lucina could see it."

"And that one looks like a Risen!" I exclaimed. The two of us exploded into laughter.

"Okay, I've had my fun. Time to go." She suddenly said.

"Huh? Oh… oh yeah. Better get down." But secretly, I wanted to keep flying.

Cynthia landed the Pegasus and we played in the forest for the rest of the day. Sure, it was fun, but I kind of wanted to fly again.

The next day, first thing in the morning, I went to find her.

"Cynthia!" I exclaimed, seeing her. "Come on, let's go play. Oh, I kind of want to go flying if that's okay with you?"

"Gerome? Did… you just say you want to go flying?" She asked. And then I realised what I'd said. I actually wanted to go flying. Because I enjoyed flying and I wasn't scared to fly. But most importantly, I wanted to go flying with her.

 **A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review!**


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